Rudloff is now serving a five-year sentence for aiding and abetting trafficking. His trial laid bare the misery and abuse of women working as prostitutes at his club who, according to court documents, were treated like animals and beaten if they didn’t make enough money. His imprisonment has dismantled the idea of Germany’s “clean prostitution” industry and raised troubling questions about what lies behind the legalised, booming sex trade.

Children with learning disabilities or autism were being particularly let down by the system, it added. Children's Commissioner Anne Longfield's report says successive governments have tried to tackle the problem, but the number of children in mental health hospitals remains "unacceptably high".

Research shows a clear need to "focus on children's journeys before they are admitted into inpatient care", the report says, but often this is not happening.

"Children, families and staff working in this area spoke again and again about how the failure to provide appropriate support to children when they are in school and living in the community, and particularly when they reach a crisis point, has contributed to inappropriate hospital admissions and delayed discharges," it says.

Figures for March show that there are at least 2,260 people with learning disabilities or autism staying in hospitals in England - most for around two years, with half being kept in secure wards. [...] But charity Mencap said "hundreds of people with a learning disability who should have been living in the community are still trapped in in-patient settings".

The charity said families were often powerless to get them out and people could be locked up for years on end, instead of being supported in their communities.

Cuts to public services and benefits that disproportionately affect the least well-off, single parents and disabled people put the government in breach of its human rights obligations, a study for the UK equalities watchdog has found.

Echoing the recent findings of the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty, Philip Alston, the study concluded the scale of the cuts and their lopsided impact on the most disadvantaged were a policy choice, rather than inevitable.

The report Alston published earlier this month said the UK government had made a political choice to let what he called “punitive, mean-spirited, and often callous” austerity policies fall disproportionately on the poorest.

Alston said the UK was in breach of four UN human rights agreements relating to women, children, disabled people, and economic and social rights.

50p minimum price per one unit of alcohol, to come into effect March 2018, after years of legal fight against the alc lobby vested interest. (Sugar Tax, ) - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-42066394 - Minimum pricing has been broadly welcomed by health bodies and alcohol awareness groups, who say it will target the kind of drinking that leads to the greatest harm. //
People from the most deprived areas are nearly eight times more likely to need help, according to the NHS. There were 36,235 alcohol-related hospital admissions last year - the equivalent of more than 100 a day. They involved 24,060 individual patients - up from the 35,376 admissions involving 23,656 patients the previous year. Alcohol-related admissions had been falling for almost a decade but the latest figures show there were 685.2 hospital admissions per 100,000 people last year - an annual increase of almost 2%. //&! http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/drink-related-hospital-stays-on-the-rise-1-4619230

The Sunday Telegraph says trainee surgeons have complained that an endemic culture of bullying among senior colleagues is putting patients' lives at risk.
The paper says some surgeons have reported being assaulted during operations for raising safety concerns, and an atmosphere of fear is said to be leading to failures in concentration that directly harm patients.

Espersen has studied Australia’s Pacific solution in detail, so I pushed him: where would your Nauru be? “Morocco is a very good example of a country that would possibly do it for an amount of money,” he claims. And Danish staff could run the camps. “We would run the things ourselves and pay the Moroccan authority a fee. We would also make it possible for their local grocers or butchers to come and deliver goods … There will be excellent service, I can assure you.” In the Danish right’s offshore paradise, there would be education, too. Nobody will be “living in ratholes”, he promises. [...] As with Australia and its offshore centres, what happens in Libya stays in Libya while Europe washes its hands of responsibility. If the flow of migrants surges again during the next war or climate crisis, the clamour for offshoring will only grow louder. And if the Australian model is adopted more fully in Europe, then there will be no hope for legitimate refugees to claim asylum through legal channels, and more of them will seek illegal paths to Europe.

But the pill wasn't just socially revolutionary. It also sparked an economic revolution - perhaps the most significant economic change of the late 20th Century. 50 Things That Made the Modern Economy highlights the inventions, ideas and innovations which have helped create the economic world in which we live.
It is broadcast on the BBC World Service. You can find more information about the programme's sources and listen online or subscribe to the programme podcast. - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04b1g3c/episodes/player

The UK should have the right not to let EU citizens stay if they “do not work, never pay taxes or are beggars or criminals”, a senior Ukip spokesman has said.

Gerard Batten, an MEP with responsibility for Ukip’s Brexit policy, suggested on Monday that the UK should have the discretion to refuse some EU citizens the right to stay and backed Theresa May’s decision not to give any guarantees without reciprocal deals from other EU countries. [...] Pressed about EU citizens, Batten suggested the UK should have the right to decline to keep some people.

It was the latest instalment of Middle Class White Women Find 101 Rude and Unnecessary Ways to Tell Trans Women We’re Not Real Women. Have you been following it? It’s all terribly riveting stuff. [...] As the writer Katelyn Burns points out on Twitter, if violent crimes are now the threshold for getting sent to male prison, where are the campaigns to send violent female criminals who are not trans to men’s prisons? [...] We treat prisoners like humans for a reason [...] Women assault other women too

Senior government ministers including Amber Rudd and Jeremy Hunt are damaging the UK’s standing in the world with their divisive rhetoric, the chair of the Commons Brexit committee, Hilary Benn, has said. [...] Indicating that such language could influence negotiations with the EU, Benn said making pronouncements about what the government would achieve from its discussions would harden attitudes towards the UK among European politicians and officials. [...] “When I reflect upon a certain week in Birmingham in the autumn, where people of a particular political party gathered and made speeches, I thought that was a disastrous week for Britain’s reputation in the world. Absolutely disastrous.

USA is at war in Yemen. Is a humanitarian catastrophe. Yet another civil war in Middle East. As in Syria/Irak. And Afghanistan. Under radar screen of international community. United Nations. [bc Saudis own middle east hegemony aspirations! ... oil dollars!/petro dollars are their insurance!] [ France UK USA sell arms to SA ] Drone strikes (civilian casualties and mistaken targets) create anti-american sentiment. Saudi Arabia opposed Iran agreement deeply! Is this all "obscure." Or is it all absurd (as is life, see psychology on existentialism). Creating oh, dear (oh dearism (see Adam Curtis, throwing hands over head giving up to understand followed by covering ones eyes, ears, mouth). Bc it is easier in a selfish world where collectivism and activism has been buried under trillons of selfies and handbags for one season. [...] Another Proxy War, as in Syria (ie Iran backed Houthis, little bit overstated! but there).

race inequality still entrenched/systemic in society. has to work trice as hard as a white posh boy. [...] still sleepwalking into segregation. UK is no one nation. [...] Political Speeches are platitudes. Worthless. // Interview - have less social capital (Toff, Privileged, Establishment) ... invisible glass wall to break into certain professions. // Universities are degree manufacturers! not teaching people to succeed in the real world. //&! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37114418

Since Turkey’s failed military coup on Friday, more than 6,000 people in the civil service, security forces and military have been arrested. Writers and journalists fear that Turkey’s authoritarian president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, will use the failed putsch as grounds to dramatically escalate his continuing purge of opponents, particularly in the media. Phoebe Greenwood goes to Istanbul to meet the journalists risking life sentences to report and publish stories critical of the Erdoğan government

&! Theresa May [...] pledge to unite country [...] vows to make sure Britain leaves EU, saying there must be no attempts to ‘remain through the back door’ [...] She attempted to woo leave voters by signing up Chris Grayling, a prominent leave campaigner, to chair her campaign and pledging to create a department for Brexit to negotiate the UK leaving the EU. After the meeting, other prominent Conservatives signed up to support May. Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, declared his support after having considered a bid himself. [also said no emergency budget more austerity = no Osborne! and no scrapping of human rights act] [she is moving the centre to centre right right. In language already.][and not sticking zero immigration on her vest] - bit.ly/297hiHu

[asking an Apple to be a Pear and then a Banana] But a Cabinet Office spokesman said: "This government is scrutinising spend like never before. We've stamped out excessive spending on consultants and put in place stringent spending controls. The total spend on consultants is still less than half of that in 2009-10."
He said the department was "actively building" skills but sometimes needed specialist expertise quickly on complex projects.
"But we only do this when the key skills are not readily available within the Civil Service and where it delivers better value for taxpayers," he added. //&! Whitehall consultants on £1,000-£2,000 per day - bbc.in/1vi8c0B

[ _BUT_ STILL A LONG WAY TO GO ] It's the only country in the world where most party leaders identify as LGBT. Val McDermid, the award-winning author of 27 crime novels, gives her thoughts to Ritula Shah on what it's like to be gay in Scotland.

theguardian.com/world/arms-trade //&! Civil servants in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills are giving British companies the all-clear to press ahead with contracts even though they are likely to lead to human rights abuses, the foreign affairs select committee will be told on Tuesday. - bit.ly/1RiI3Xk

[via redd.it/4f3ziu ] Transgender women have a high prevalence of major depressive disorder, generalised anxiety disorder, suicidality, post-traumatic stress disorder, and substance dependence, research published in JAMA Paediatrics has found.1

The study of 298 sexually active transgender women aged 16 to 29 years found that 41% had one or more mental health or substance dependence diagnoses, and nearly one in five had two or more psychiatric

demands are said to be totally impossible. but we are told it will be possible to upload our memory into a computer. build new hearts from a single cell in a printer. // UAE/Dubai/Qatar 2020; migrant labours taken their passports etc.

//&! Results reveal that the women with the LGBT indicator on their résumés were discriminated against compared with the other women, receiving about 30 percent fewer callbacks. (srd.sagepub.com) - https://redd.it/4b84ec

After all, many Americans still see transgender people as strange or illegitimate. So it wouldn’t surprise me if interest in this story is partly driven by a desire to see the world’s most famous transgender person being taken down by her own community. Caitlyn Jenner has positioned herself as a representative or “ambassador” of trans communities, so I can understand why trans people object or take issue when her views fail to accurately reflect or support those communities. But when people who are unconcerned with transgender rights themselves start piling on, quite frankly, I am suspicious.

[ oldschool dr greger ] not only is meat a carcinogen itself, but meat has accumulated pesticides and herbicides, because cows and co eat animal feed full of pesticides and herbicides. but also their loved ones (male chicken, not laying eggs, not putting on meat fast enough for industry to make a bigger profit) are in it, ground up. Even fat trimmings are in animal feed! // breast cancer rates on the rise as meat eating babyboomers come into old age 40-50 and older

Mrs May has said Britain's spies must continue to be allowed to hack into foreign computer networks, under so-called "bulk equipment interference warrants", as this was "a key operational requirement for GCHQ".
She told MPs that bulk powers had played a significant role in every major counter-terrorism investigation over the past decade, including seven terror plots foiled in the past 18 months, and in responding to the bulk of cyber attacks against UK interests.

[forced labour, thus slavery. modern slavery act 2015; kept as a commodity, exploited, invisible handcuffs (documents taken away, or a threat to family)] [food industry & high steet is using it knowingly, does not monitor regularly unannounced it's suppliers for audits. slavery act 2015 can go only so long. industry can not self-regulate it seem.] Slavery and exploitation are alive and well in the UK. From factories and fields to high streets and high seas, investigative reporter Darragh MacIntyre reveals the extent to which exploited workers are embedded within our economy.
In this hard-hitting documentary, MacIntyre uncovers a hidden world of vulnerable victims - not only those trafficked to the UK from abroad, but also a British citizen forced to work unpaid for years. Joining police raids on suspected traffickers, MacIntyre witnesses first hand the authorities' efforts to combat this growing problem. He discovers, alarmingly, that 80% of slavery crimes may be going undetected

“There are crimes now taking place – the malicious use of intimate photographs for example – which we never would have imagined as an offence when I was a PC in the 80s. It’s not just the nature of it, it is the sheer volume. “The levels of abuse that now take place within the internet are on a level we never really expected. If we did try to deal with all of it we would clearly be swamped.” [...] Earlier in the week, it emerged that the Crown Prosecution Service in England and Wales has turned to Twitter for help as it faces a worrying increase in the use of social media by perpetrators to commit crimes against women and girls, including rape, domestic abuse and blackmail.

Harman says women should be protected from exploitation and abuse after Labour leader sets out his opinion on prostitution ... << [ YOU CAN REGULATE, AND CRIMINALISE EXPLOITATION GIVING WOMEN THE PROTECTION THEY NEED! STUPID! ] //&! You have to enforce it, stupid. - bit.ly/1Qw1AF9 //&! need for safety! - bit.ly/1SonVFT [ - and removing stigma. But in a "Christian Values" country, according to David Cameron?]

Clan Childlaw is to tell the UK Supreme Court next week that agencies such as health, education and social work will be justified in sharing information about a child merely on the basis of concerns about their wellbeing, rather than the previous much tougher test of being 'at risk of significant harm'. This means children can have virtually no expectation of privacy or confidentiality, the charity says, breaching article eight of the European Convention on Human Rights.

[ all without a warrant ] Your Samsung smart TV or Amazon Echo might spy on you next if the government succeeds in forcing Apple to disable security protections on a smartphone to further the FBI’s investigation into the San Bernardino attacks. Security experts from Stanford, Harvard and Rice universities and independent researchers laid out this Orwellian scenario in a court filing today, supporting Apple’s fight against a court order to help investigators hack a smartphone used by one of the assailants in the mass killing. The group of seven experts argues that the judge’s order [...] disturbing possibilities for how law enforcement might turn everyday items into surveillance tools. //&! Amazon Quietly Disabled Encryption in Latest Version of Fire OS - on.recode.net/1TXeXPB //&! Twitter, Airbnb, eBay, Kickstarter, LinkedIn and Square File Brief Supporting Apple - on.recode.net/1LXQ3sG &! Three Industry Trade Groups to File Briefs Supporting Apple - on.recode.net/1oTUdwx

“We’ve been working to improve our internal hiring practices for a while, but the Oscars controversy was a wake-up call to examine our role in expanding opportunities internally at Bad Robot and externally with our content and partners,” said Abrams. “We’re working to find a rich pool of representative, kick-ass talent and give them the opportunity they deserve and we can all benefit from. It’s good for audiences and it’s good for the bottom line.” Bad Robot will reportedly work with its agency partner CAA and studios Warner Bros and Paramount to ensure women and minorities are submitted for writing, directing and acting jobs for the company in direct proportion to their representation among the US population.

The outgoing Liberty director explains why plans to scrap the Human Rights Act threaten freedom, and why she won’t stop campaigning [...] I ask Chakrabarti – once branded by the Sun as “the most dangerous woman in Britain” – who she thinks deserves the “most dangerous” hallmark now. “Right now? David Cameron.” She says. “Actually, can I have more than one? Then him and that particular group in the cabinet now who are dedicated to scrapping the Human Rights Act. That group. They are an existential threat to the rights and freedoms of the most vulnerable people in our country.” [...] investigatory powers bill. “We wouldn’t let the state impose identity cards, but these,” she holds up her phone, “these we buy.”

Businesses warned not to hire someone based on sex, age or nationality Asking for a Polish builder or a 'barmaid' could land employers in hot water Warning comes after latest guidelines were issued on the Equality Act Advertising for 'mature' candidate or 'recent graduate' could breach rules [...] It further warns that adverts that imply a particular age group, such as those that might call for someone who is 'mature' or a 'recent graduate', would breach the regulations. Other examples of adverts that may break the law would be those who call for particular strengths, such as being tall, as this could be discriminatory against women. The EHRC is a public body was set up following the establishment of the Equality Act in 2006, and is responsible for the promotion and enforcement of non-discrimination in England, Scotland and Wales.

For working parents and people with limited disposable income, the cost of mandatory socializing can be prohibitive. There’s ample evidence that companies with strong cultures are more productive. But when hiring managers appraise job candidates for cultural fit, they don’t actually look for people who align with organizational values. Instead, they select the people who are most like them, as Northwestern University professor of management Lauren Rivera writes in The New York Times. Evaluating someone based on a shared affinity for kayaking, homebrew, and polo is a great way to choose a roommate or a fraternity member. But putting cultural fit first at work often means ignoring the role that class, race and gender play in shaping our hobbies, college backgrounds, and tastes.

UK citizens are being forced into exile by the Home Office’s “irrational and absurd” minimum-income visa requirements, with some couples having no hope of ever being able to live together in Britain, the supreme court has heard. UK nationals must earn more than £18,600 to bring over a non-EU spouse, rising to £22,400 if they have a child who does not have British citizenship, and by an additional £2,400 for each subsequent child. Seven supreme court justices including the court’s deputy president, Lady Hale, will decide after a three-day hearing whether the rules contravene article 8 of the European convention on human rights, covering respect for private and family life. [...] the law barred up to 47% of the working British population from living with a non-EU spouse in their home country. [ if you are working poor, you do not add to white society! ] ... for families to be self-sufficient,